Samsung's MacBook Air competitor gets dated and priced

We've seen plenty of MacBook Air competitors crop up since Apple's fall refresh, including Samsung's 9 series notebook. Unveiled at CES 2011, the ultraportable matches the MacBook Air's size and weight almost precisely, measuring from 15.9mm to 16.3mm between its thickest and thinnest points and weighing 2.89 pounds. Samsung wasn't quite ready to spill the beans on pricing and availability back in January, but nearly two months later the company has finally shared those details.

The Samsung 9 series will hit shelves in South Korea this month and elsewhere next month for the rough equivalent of $2,200 -- we hope this is an error. That fee gets you a 13-inch 1366x768 display, an Intel Core i5 processor, Intel HD graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, micro-HDMI output, a backlit keyboard and a six-cell battery. That's all crammed into a sleek duralumin chassis and the system is preloaded with Windows 7.